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And then there is me, who actually thinks there is nothing wrong with ticket scalping...

An image of the 2014 Marvel sets have surfaced! http://www.thebrickfan.com/lego-marvel-super-heroes-2014-sets-images-revealed/

Ditto at mine. Actually it has been all week - at least, all the DC/SRC/HH were cleared out when I first went in on Monday for the BOGO, and then today when I checked back in EVERYTHING was cleared out. All I know is, I look at my portfolio of Friends sets and I see: I have at least one of every regular set and all but the rarest poly bags. Although most of these sets are still widely available at retailers, the theme is already an investment winner. The two medium-sized sets that have retired (BBS and Dog Show) both have astronomical growth charts for the first 6ish months. There are some losers in this theme (as there are in all themes) but Lego has a real winner in this line which means if you're shorting it because pink's not your color, I'm cool with that - just means less competition for me! These sets are really well designed and have tons of cool pieces, too. My boys (other than the 12yo who is at the age where anything to do with girls is gross) love the theme as much or more than my daughter. I can't see this line being an investment loser especially after watching the craziness around DC this season.

Quick update - my first with the banner ad showed an increase in eBay Store visits of over 1,000%! To be clear, my store visits were low before, but they really spiked yesterday. Today, it appears my site traffic will decrease slightly from yesterday, but it's still way up over my last month's equivalent dates. And for those who say the holiday season is likely part of the bump, my store visits prior to the ad were about the same as they were a month prior, if not a little lower. I expect to see a steady stream of clicks from the BP ad in the near future, but they will probably tail off from the insane spike I saw yesterday. It's the Brickpicker Effect in a different form... EDIT - I also sold a good chunck of merch yesterday too!

BrickFanatics has released the results for their Lucky #7 LEGO Set Award: The Set of the Year. This year, 4 sets were in nominated by the 5 judges, therefore two votes for one set. That set was... 10232 PALACE CINEMA!!!!! Congratulations to the 3 other sets that were nominated: 70709 Galactic Titan 41999 4x4 Crawler Exclusive Edition 70010 The Lion CHI Temple It appears that modular-like buildings are the amongst the most popular LEGO products, last year's winner being the Haunted House. Any other sets you think should have, or could have won the award? I believe that the set has to be released this year (2013). My nomination goes to the 10236 Ewok Village. As a Star Wars fan, I felt it was my duty to nominate a LEGO Star Wars set, so I made a decision between the 75021 Republic Gunship and the 10236 Ewok Village. I think the 10236 Ewok Village set has a huge potential, similar to that of the Death Star, as it is both a great display set as well play set, with the huge variety of minifigures offered in the set. The design of the set was done remarkably, with the different forest elements, as well as great color coordination. If this proves popular, I'll start a poll later on with the favorite BrickPicker nominations.

Too bad many investors are blowing off the Galactic Titan and CHI Temple. I'm not.

I have to agree. That was an excellent point that I had not considered.

Ed=Smart

Scalping, reselling, flipping, investing...it's all the same. Buy at one price, sell(hopefully) at a higher price. Bottom line is LEGO likes to manipulate the market. The bans and restrictions are just a few ways to generate buzz and cause people to further inflate the value of LEGO sets. LEGO is doing us a favor. They are instilling in consumer's minds that these sets are valuable and that they as a company are out there fighting against "scalpers and flippers," making sure Little Johnny gets his Minecraft set for XMAS, while in fact, LEGO is actually making sets more valuable in the secondary market because of these same restrictions, bans and sales reductions.

I agree that the Final Value Fee charged on shipping is pretty lame. I understand the theory behind it- it was to cut down on the people charging astronomical shipping charges b/c they could pocket that money without paying the FVF charged on item cost. I remember the days when every other $5 item had a $20 or more shipping charge (I still check the shipping charges on any item first, out of habit). I don't miss the shipping scammers, but I don't like a FVF on my shipping either. Here's a problem have with the system. I pay for USPS shipping through Ebay, so Ebay has proof that those postage costs aren't part of my net profits. If they insist on charging a shipping FVF, I wish they would remove my actual postage costs from my item shipping charges before assessing fees. It seems like that system would be a little more fair- prevent shipping scammers, but without passing on unnecessary costs to sellers. I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen, though.

I like "cyber-hustler."

I'm done buying them. I have flippin flipped them like I've flippin never flipped before and now I'm flippin done with them flippin flippers.

Exactly. I don't believe that there is such a thing as "scalping." I fundamentally disagree with the word being used as a definition for someone buying something at one price and then selling for a higher price. No one calls homebuyers who sell at a huge profit a few years down the road "scalpers," and some of them (in areas like Seattle, NYC, etc) are making hundreds of thousands of dollars just for holding onto a house for a few years. Also, houses are scarce in those areas and not everyone gets one. Unlike Lego, it's not really possible to make many new houses in those areas (without tearing down old ones). But again, no one calls those people names. No, names like "scalper" are reserved only for people who sell concert tickets, sports tickets, toys and video game systems for a profit. No one calls people who sell shares of stock, cars or houses for huge profits "scalpers." Nope, that's only for tickets and toys. Doesn't this seem a litte arbitrary and silly? So the point is, yes I know what the word scalper means to some people. I just disagree that it should ever be applied to anyone other than someone selling gasoline, bread or milk for an inflated profit during a hurricane or flood.

Of couse there isn't. There are some really good talks online about the subject by some economics professors. "Scalping" is merely creating a real market out of the shell of an artificial one. It's basic economics. The bottom line is that people want what they want when they want it at the price they want it. If they can't have that for some reason they blame anyone who has it. The word "scalping" arose out of the need to demonize people engaging in simple market-based economics.

Yeah, thanks for saying this. This has been my point for years about the whole concept of "Lego scalping." People like to bring up scalping concert tickets to make a point about buying Lego sets for resale (in fact, someone in this thread already has) but it doesn't make any sense to me. First of all, the average Lego set is sold for 2 years. Some less (Architechture Studio; Limited Ed. Crawler) and some more (Death Star; Fire Brigade) but it looks to be around 2 years for the average set. Given this fact, how in the world could anyone "scalp" a Lego set? Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Lego has the ability to make as many sets as they want! There are only so many tickets to see Miley Cyrus at the Staples Center (during the current tour, anyway) but Lego can keep making sets, right? So please please please someone explain to me how you can scalp something that 1. Is on sale for roughly 2 years and 2. The company has the ability to make an unlimited amount more of. Please, someone explain that. And yes, you are dead right. There is no way to figure out what an appropriate amount of dead stock to keep on the shelves for grandma is. No matter how many you keep it will never be enough! At some point the sets will sell to someone (leaving grandma empty handed) and at some point there has to be room made for new sets. Toysrus doesn't have room for 1000 different Lego sets. Lastly, how is it any one person's responsibility to "leave something for someone else" by not paying for it with their own hard-earned money? Lego sets are not given out free. Lego sets are not sold to help sick children dying of cancer. Lego sets are a luxury toy. There is nothing wrong with buying as many as you want/can and it is absurd to suggest that anyone has a moral or ethical reason not to buy as many as they care to--for any reason. Lego sets are not loaves of bread or bottles of milk sold during a hurricane. Do I have a responsibility not to buy every Corvette at the Chevy dealer because others might want one? Would anyone have a problem with it if I did? What makes little plastic bricks so special? Again, we are not talking about food or medicine for starving children in Africa. These are luxury toys. I think we should all keep that in mind when we start talking about a "responsibility to leave some for others."

There are no specific EOL dates. LEGO doesn't put out what exact day a set is retired. It is more of a time frame that fans of LEGO like you and I report to sites like brickset.

Hi there! Brickpicker to my knowledge doesn't have data on that. You can try Brickset.com. If you search for a set, you can see on the right side of your screen from when till when the set was sold at Lego.com, for example 4195 retired in oct-nov 2012: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=4195-1 Hope this helps.

Since I'm a Super Heroes fanatic, I'll end up getting all of them. I'm not that disappointed in how they look. They'll probably grow on me the more I look at them That Green Goblin set is based on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon but at least he looks similar to keep it consistent.

In other words, NOT good enough for the parents looking for Christmas gifts By the way, I am experimenting with my store. Let's see how quickly I can sell this thing out at this price

He's 19.....has a 4 year old.....thinks a 4 year old should have an Xbox One......can't believe he got conned.

Vampyre Castle (9468) can be found at Kmart for $99 each.

Yes. I was lured in by the cruel tempting mistress of other brick brands....but I rediscovered the light of Lego! OH HALLELUJAH, PRAISE LEGO! :angel:

Don`t know why some are complaining about the price tag. $3000 is perfectly reasonable given the rare/limited nature of the set! I was seriously going to buy this until I realized that shipping was $25. That last little bit will break the bank

Legos now arriving at front porch. Please proceed to the dining room for final sorting. Sorry for the flipping. I have no flipping idea how to fix these on iphone. That was this week starting Monday. That is about 50% now. Lots are coming tomorrow and most are coming Monday. Many were delayed, but most were shipped yesterday for Monday delivery. I posted some of my dining room stage area in another thread. Here are a couple. It's worse now (better?). I'll take some new photos of the dining room when I get home.

I will keep you in mind if I don't use it. The only thing I might try to get is the chess set (if that is restocked).

I am trying to tell that you missed low prices now its too late...do not buy it for full price...i got mine for 46, 52 and 55 max...price will drop on Xmas to 80s...I am selling for 109-119 now..for some profit, but not 99.99...cause shipping ( this set 4lbs+) and fees take big chunk...

Crazy DC price will last till Xmas....after no one will buy it...I am not buying it for full price 69.99+....do not waist you time...price will be back to normal after Xmas shipping due date....I am selling my stock of 35+15...done.

Personally I think lego raises some of those limits to 99 to root out who the resellers are. Anyone ordering more than five of the same set, especially one on sale, would most definitely raise a red flag in their eyes. They put a decent set on sale and raise the limit to 99 to see who will bite. To quote Admiral Ackbar,"IT'S A TRAP!"

While I generally agree, both 41999 and 21102 (when first released last year) were sets that were produced in limited quantities and not so easy to get. Veteran Lego resellers and those that followed this site knew these were coming/available, but a good chunk of the rest of the world were left behind/out of luck.

Totally off topic but I have to say that I am very impressed with this site so far and I'm sorry I didn't join earlier. There are two pages of posts on this topic and no one has called anyone else a name or even been rude to anyone. This puts this site in the vast minority on the internet. Thanks to everyone for being so civil and intelligent. If only every forum could be this way.

Comparing Lego to Coach bags and diamonds is a bit of a stretch. If your theory was true, then the part-out value of sets would be a fraction of the cost of the set because when you're selling individual parts, you've removed the design and name, and are simply peddling plastic bricks. However, the part-out value of sets often tracks somewhat closely to the cost of the set. If you took a Coach bag, stripped it down to the fabric, you couldn't sell that for anything close to the value of the assembled bag. There's not really an appropriate comparison to diamonds, but the value there has been created through a monopoly cartel and savvy marketing. IMHO, the reason that Lego bans resellers is that they want to control their distribution channels and build long-lasting relationships with the customers who buy directly from LEGO Shop at Home. As a result, they don't want resellers using their in-house retail channel as a wholesale channel and draining all of their inventory when a set goes on sale. I have no problem with TLG controlling their distribution mechanisms in this way and also have no problem conforming my buying to their wishes. If TLG only wants my retail dollars,that's fine...there are plenty of others out there who will gladly accept my wholesale dollars.

Totally agree, which is why I also added the (admittedly churlish) part about my sales and procurement going so well despite the website ban. I just wanted them to know that they are not stopping or even slowing my game. As far as previous posts speculating about the reason for all this, my theory is the following: Lego wants to have as much control as possible over resellers because they are selling an item with a low inherent value. Lego items have a high value because of name and design. Without name and design they are simply pieces of nearly worthless plastic. This is similar to Coach handbags, another company which tries to stop resellers (they go even further than Lego in their zeal to stop resellers) because they also know that their items have low inherent value. They are selling fabric bags worth around $5 in actual money. They become $500 because of the Coach name and design. The diamond cartels also engage in similar practices of strict control because diamonds are not actually scarce, contrary to public opinion. The diamond market is artificially created. Go try to sell a used diamond and you will find out really quickly what the inherent value of a diamond is. In fact, most diamond dealers have a strict policy of not buying used diamonds. I could go on and on but I think you get the idea. The bottom line is this: if you are selling an item with a low inherent value you need to tightly control the flow (sale) that item. If the market gets flooded with items like this the price will drop precipitously and the whole house of cards will collapse. Lego knows this. Coach knows this. The diamond cartels know this. I don't think it's much more complicated than this.

Regardless, a good chunk of the sets sold on ebay during that time went to you. If you hadn't been buying them all at that price, I don't believe there were enough interested buyers to support the price, which is why the price has been dropping off. I'm not saying it will never recover, it will, but not at the pace it went up before, unless you start buying them all again.

...and the fruits of my labor from Black Friday and Cyber Monday mouse clicking started to arrive. Def gonna need a bigger boat ...umm, I mean more shelving units.

I'm not your clone but there's a high probability I know you if you're an American and worked here as an expat. I've been coming here off and on for more than 10 years.

Some great Steampunk figbarf material here! Lots of zombies!

No insiders. Just hard work looking for new info for you guys